Die Deutsche Wochenschau is the title of the unified newsreel series released in the cinemas of Nazi Germany from June 1940 until the end of World War II, with the final edition issued on 22 March 1945. The co-ordinated newsreel production was set up as a vital instrument for the mass distribution of Nazi propaganda at war.
In this Die Deutsche Wochenschau video:
01:00 The gun in the background is an 8,8cm FlaK 36 AA-gun, the most commonly used German AA-defense weapon.
01:34 These two soldiers are wearing a so-called “Drillich” a piece of uniform worn by German soldiers during exercise, building positions and other non-combat related tasks. It was made of a more durable fiber and was usually, as can be seen here, a lot brighter, almost white.
01:05 Since these AA-gun crews and auxiliars would often sit around idling for days, weeks or even months at time, they were eventually used to perform small labor tasks to support the armament industry.
02:02 To replace male personnel, over half a million women were employed by the Wehrmacht during WWII. Most of them served in signal positions, such as telephone or telegraph operator, within bases, airports, administrative offices etc. of the Wehrmacht.
02:21 The NS Women’s League was the women’s wing of the Nazi party. Founded in 1933, its prime task was to educate women in alliance with nazi ideology, to prepare them for a life as mother and housewife. Later on in the war, the Women’s League also organized the use of women for war effort.
02:57 This is referring to a prisoner exchange between Germany and Great Britain on September 9th, 1944. The Swedish steamer Gripsholm brought 682 German POWs from camps in the US and Canada, mostly merchant sailors and severely wounded soldiers. This was followed by the SS Drottningholm, a British steam liner, which brought 586 civilian German prisoners, the majority women (468), and finally the SS Arundel Castle, which brought another 1100 German POWs. These 2233 Germans were exchanged for 2654 British POWs and internees.
03:22 This banner reads “The homeland greets you”
04:08 Judo was already somewhat established in Germany early on in the 20th century, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who was given a demonstration by Japanese sailors during their visit in Kiel in 1906, was described as a fan, and in 1926, the first German Judo championship was hosted; in August 1932, a German-Judo Federation was founded. During the Nazi era, Judo was seen as useful for fighting and since Japan and Germany were allied, Judo was continued to be practiced; the last German wartime Judo championships were held in 1941.
05:20 This a Panther, a German medium tank, built between 1943 and 1945. Armed with a 75mm gun and equipped with good sloped armor (up to 100mm), it is regarded as one of the best medium tanks of WWII, especially considering that unlike other German tanks, such as the Tiger, the Panther was pretty reliable, especially in later variants. Around 6000 were built.
05:27 While this is a bit difficult to recognize due to the camouflage, this is an Sd. Kfz. 7, a half-track tractor, with 12,187 units built between 1938 and 1944, towing an Sd. Kfz. 251, the standard German APC of WWII, with 15,252 built between 1940 and 1945.
05:27 This is probably referring to Operation Market Garden, the infamous Allied combined airborne and land offensive from late September 1944.
05:29 This is a Panzer IV Ausf. H. The Panzer IV was the most built German tank during WWII, with a total of 8,553 tanks built between 1936 and 1945. The Ausf. H was the second most built variant, with 2324 built between April 1943 and February 1944. It had up to 80mm of armor and was equipped with the long 7,5cm KwK L/48.
05:35 This is again an Sd. Kfz. 251, towing an “schwerer geländegängiger PKW“ (heavy off-road car), a standardized car built by Ford and Horch for the Wehrmacht from 1938 to 1941. It weighted 3,8 tons and was equipped with either an Horch 3.5 or 3.8 liter V-8, or an 3.6 liter Ford V-8, making between 77 and 89hp. 8,135 Horch and 1,901 Ford cars were made. They were used in a variety of roles, mainly by signal troops, but also to tow light artillery or AA-guns.
06:37 This soldier is armed with a relatively rare G 41, a semi-automatic rifle. Two variants of this rifle were made in 1941, one by Mauser with around 13,000 rifles, which was considered too complicated and wasn’t adapted, and one by Walther, with around 130,000 rifles being made. This soldier here is carrying a Walther Gewehr 41, the Walther variant was later developed into the more well-known G-43. It can easily be recognized by its characteristic thick muzzle.
07:21 This is a StuG III assault gun.
07:32 This is a King Tiger, officially Tiger II, a German superheavy tank of WWII. Built as a successor to the Tiger tank, it weighted 70 tons, was armed with an 8.8cm gun and had armor up to 185mm. However, it was severely underpowered with only a 700hp engine, the same engine the already underpowered Tiger I was equipped with and had massive engine and transmission problems. Additionally, the heavy weight meant it was unsuitable for many bridges and even normal roads. However, in direct combat it was basically superior to every enemy tank. 492 were built between January 1944 and March 1945.
08:06 This is a famous 8,8cm FlaK 36 AA/AT gun. This scene is interesting for a specific reason, it is actually from 1941. Some time ago, I have uploaded the German Newsweek No. 577 from September 24th, 1941. If you go to that video and take a look at 14:24 there, you will find the exact same scene. Re-using old scenes was often done in German Newsweeks.
08:17 The units talked about here, the “Small Battle Units of the Navy”, were formed in April 1944 and used midget submarines, explosive speedboats and frogmen to attack allied supply-and warships close to the coast. These units only had limited success: From April 1944 to the end of the war, they only managed to sink 19 allied ships, including 1 cruiser, 2 destroyers and 10 merchant ships, and damage a further 3 ships.
08:21 These are Linse explosive speedboats. The boats were filled with explosives and were driven towards the target at high speed, the pilots would drop off the boats around 300m before the target, and the boat would then explode once it hits the targets. The boats were filled with 300, later 480 kilos of explosives. Until the end of the war, 1201 of these boats were built, but they only achieved limited success, as only a few allied ships were damaged, none sunk. One of the more notable usages of these boats was Operation Bruno in September 1944, where these boats were used to destroy the lock gates in the Antwerp harbor, rendering the harbor unusable for the Allies for several weeks
08:37 This is a propaganda lie, in fact, the Linse explosive boats didn’t destroy a single Allied ships, only damaged a few smaller Allied warships. They did, however, managed to destroy a few bridges and harbor installations.
08:45 As written above, the Linse explosive boats didn’t sunk a single Allied warship. However, the one-man torpedos mentioned here, which were actually midget submarines carrying torpedoes, such as the Neger or Marder models, actually managed to sink a few allied ships, but as written above, that number was only 19 ships from their formation in April 1944 to the end of the war. Additionally, some of the ships allegedly sunk or damaged by these units were in fact destroyed by mines or regular navy units, such as patrol boats or destroyers, but their sinking were attributed to these new small units, to make them seem more successful.
09:05 Friedrich Böhme (1899-1984) was a German Navy officer during WWI and WWII. He joined the German Navy as a volunteer in May 1916, and continued his service after WWI, becoming an officer in 1925. From September 1939 until its sinking in April 1940, he was commander of the destroyer Z22. From April 1941 to February 1943 he was Navy liaison officer to Air Fleet 5; from March to October 1943, commander of the Naval AA-gunner school. In April 1944, he became commander of the Small Battle Units of the Navy ( see entry above), and was awarded the Knights Cross in late August 1944 for the “successes” of these units during the Invasion of Normandy. From October 1944 until the end of the war, he was commander of these small units in Italy; and was released from British captivity in May 1948.
09:25 After the German occupation of Italy in 1943, Italian partisans operated with large success in Northern Italy, using the mountain terrain to their advantage, attacking German trains, supply and troop convoys. The Germans reacted to this by resorting to mass executions of suspected or actual partisans, and often killing of civilians to punish the population for their help of partisans. Many war crimes were committed, and roughly 14,000 Italian civilians, plus 8,000 Italian Jews, were killed by German or Fascist Italian troops.
09:26 This is a 2cm Flak 38 AA-gun.
09:40 The German Police had one Mountaineer Regiment during WWII, the SS-Police Mountaineer Regiment 18. Originally formed as the Police Battalion 302 in November 1939, it was changed to a regiment in July 1942, and then sent to Slovenia and fought against Yugoslavian partisans. In February 1943, the regiment, like all police units, received the honorary name “SS-Police Regiment”, but it was not an SS-unit. It was moved to Greece in Summer 1943 and remained there untill September 1944, when it retreated through the Balkans. Since this was the only Mountaineer Regiment of the Police, and was never stationed in Italy, these soldiers shown here are not Mountaineer Police units.
09:54 This soldier is an Oberfeldwebel, a Senior NCO rank, comparable to Master sergeant. He wears slightly different shoulder insignias, as normally the edge of the insignia has a broad white line, not a thin one as shown here.
10:12 This gun is a Solothrun S18/100, a German/Swiss anti-tank rifle. It was developed by the German company Rheinmetall, but produced in Switzerland to circumvent weapon restrictions of the Versailles treaty. Built between 1934 and 1943, it used a 20x105mm cartridge, and the gun weights 45 kilos, making it a very heavy anti-tank rifle. Most of these guns were actually delivered to Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria, but Germany used a few captured guns from Italy and Hungary in 1944.
10:47 The machine gun the soldier on the left is using here is a Soviet DP-27 light machine gun, recognizable by its characteristic pan magazine. Designed in 1927 and built between 1928 and 1955, 795,000 guns were made. A lot of these were captured by the Germans during their initial advance in 1941/42, and these guns were often given, as shown here to police and other secondary units.
11:37 Hermann Balck (1893-1982) was a German tank general in WWII. Born as the son of highly decorated Prussian General William Black (1959-1924), he came from a long tradition of British and Prussian military officers. He joined the German Army as a cadet in April 1913, fighting in WWI as a mountain officer, and earning several high-ranking awards, such as both classes of the iron Cross and the House Order of Hohenzollern. He continued as an infantry and cavalry officer between the wars; at the beginning of WWII, he commanded the Rifle Regiment 1 during the Invasion of France, where he was awarded the Knights Cross. From Summer 1942 to April 1943, he commanded the 11th Tank Division, and from April to June the motorized Infantry Division “Großdeutschland”. In November 1943, he became commander of the XXXXVIII. Tank Corps on the Eastern Front; in August 1944 acting commander of the 4th Tank Army. For his successes in stabilizing the German frontlines in his sector, he received the Diamonds to the Oak Leaves and Swords of the Knights Cross on August 31st, this is referred here. On September 21st, he became commander of Army Group G on the Western Front, but his proposal to retreat behind the Rhine made Hitler remove him from his command, and in December 1944 he became commander of the 6th Army in the Budapest Region, together with the Hungarian 1st and 3rd Army, this formation was called “Army Group Black”. Towards the end of the war, he retreated with his units towards Austria and capitulated before American units. While an American Pow, he was sentenced to 20 years by a French court for destroying French villages during the retreat of German troops in that area, but the Americans didn’t extradite him to the French. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 1948 by a German court for ordering the shooting of a drunk German artillery court without a court martial.
11:53 This is again a Panther tank, see entry at 05:20
12:11 The Panzerwerfer (armored launcher) was a German armored multiple rocket launcher. It consisted of a Maultier, Sd. Kfz. 4/1, an armored half-track, with a 10-tube 15cm rocket launcher on top, and an MG-42 for close combat defense. Around 300 of these vehicles were built between April 1943 and March 1944. The advantage of this vehicle, compared to normal rocket artillery, was that it could quickly change positions after firing. This was crucial, as rocket artillery created so much smoke when firing that the enemy could easily detect their positions, and they only had a maxim firing range of 6900 meters, placing them well within the firing range on enemy artillery. However, the small numbers of the Panzerwerfer meant that they didn’t influence combat much.
12:28 The Warsaw Uprising was an attempt by the Polish resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. Starting on August 1st, rebels managed to capture various key points in the city, but without outside support, the Germans were quickly able to crush the resistance, and the uprising failed on October 2nd. There is an ongoing debate among historians whether the Soviet Army, which at that time was close to Warsaw, deliberately did not help the Polish rebels.
12:50 This is a 7,5cm PaK 40 AT-gun, the standard AT-gun of the German Army during WWII.
Source :
https://archive.org/details/die-deutsche-wochenschau-berita-mingguan-jerman-no.-733-21-september-1944-teks-indonesia
https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/4001/659685
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhBJHn-g4Sg
